Weekend 3 of Yoga Teacher Training

Weekend 3 of training is in the past and weekend 4 is just around the corner.  The frequency of the classes and the amount of out of class work has quickly reached  a crescendo.   There is a good amount  of reading to be done and digested and it is not easy material.  We have journaling to do,  questions to answer and mini classes to prepare.   On top of all the class related work,   I still have to practice Yoga, do my regular job etc. etc. etc.

Each day on the training weekend has a different teacher and the focus and the tenor of each class is different as a result.    The focus is mostly on anatomy and poses related to the anatomy points but the style of the classes are vastly different.  There was less Yoga on Saturday and a long and very hard session on Sunday.

On Saturday,  we spent a good amount of time on a type of yoga called Slow Fluid Movement, spinal anatomy and the Bandhas.   We use our Bandhas to engage our body energy and provide strength and stability .   They are very important to understand in our Yoga practice and much of the class was focused on the five.     The yoga practiced was very slow and deliberate and mostly used to make a point about something.

An important topic (for me) was the  range of motion in poses.  From my perspective, this was one of those "aha" moments in Yoga.    If  you move within your optimal range of motion in a Yoga pose,  you range will increase over time.   If you move outside of our range of motion,  you risk injuring yourself.   Yoga is about yourself and no one else.  

Sunday was discussion of what is called the Spiral Line in anatomy.  This was basically focused on twists and how to best work on twists.   The two main things that I learned was that your spine must be in neutral before doing twists and that that twists should not be forced as it can cause injury.  Much of what we spent on in the long practice was just that,  how to work within our range of motion of twists and how to properly start twists and how not to force them.

During class,  we did some arm balances, one of which for the past two weeks I have been trying to do without success.   This is eight limbed pose.   It will be my nemesis forever (at least for now).     I have been trying with limited success.    At this point, it is pure ego.    I think its within my range of motion though,  so I will continue to try as long as I feel I will not injure myself.



By Sunday,  I was pretty wiped.   These are long weekends.

Namaste.